#sorry. trying to reread and edit this at work on my break. PLS lemme know if anything’s off

[another-dr-another]

ok rq go talk w maki, tell her abt the change in plans!! -iris

Maeda, narrating - Before I go, I need to… actually tell Maki what my plans are.

Maeda - If she had agreed to take over for me, then she just left, I’d… really want to know why.

~*~

Maeda - Maki!

Maki - Maeda. Coming to take over for me?

Maeda - …

Maeda - Yeah, so, actually…

Maeda - …

Maki - …

//She looks at him- obviously aware of what he’s getting at, but waiting to hear him say it.

Maeda - …I have something I need to take care of first, if that’s okay.

Maki - Yeah, fine.

Maeda - Sorry…

Maeda - It’s just-

Maeda - It’s Hatano! She asked me to go and handle some stuff for her, and…

Maeda - It-It’s Hatano… I’d feel wrong if I didn’t go.

Maki - …Really? What does she need from you?

Maeda - Uh…

Maeda - She’s not really… confident about what Tsurugi and Uehara have been up to. She wants to know how Tsurugi’s feeling, what happened to him, and what he and Uehara did while in Uehara’s dorm-

Maeda - But, she said there’s other things she wants to go look at, so she asked me to talk to them instead.

Maeda - So…

Maki - …Huh.

Maeda - I would say you can go talk to them! But… I don’t think I really explained what she’s thinking-

Maeda - Since I was the one that spoke with her, I feel like I’m best to ask her questions…

Maeda - U-Unless you really want to go investigate now, because I understand!

Maeda - Honestly… getting their testimonies now probably isn’t as important as you getting to see Higa’s body-

Maeda - But, I don’t think it’d take that long to ask them questions… and I don’t want Hatano to be upset if she sees me sitting down…

Maeda - …Though, who knows what Hatano would think.

Maki - …Maeda, it’s fine.

Maeda - …

Maki - Seriously- I’m not upset over this.

Maki - Go talk with them, yeah? I’ll just… be here waiting.

Maki - I mean, you’re investigating, right? Getting new information out of it?

Maeda - Yeah, that’s true…

Maki - So, it’s overall a positive thing. 

Maki - …

Maki - Besides- now seems like a good time to be… somewhat prioritizing Hatano’s concerns.

Maeda - That’s- also totally true.

Maeda - Thank you for understanding, Maki…

Maki - Yeah, no worries…

Maki - Though, think you could do me a favor, before you go?

Maeda - Sure! …What is it?

Maki - Could you go over what you found while investigating? 

Maki - What you told us earlier wasn’t too in-depth, and… it’s starting to look like I may not get a chance to see, 

Maki - What with how long we’ve been investigating for, and the fact you have new things to look at.

Maki - Even if I can’t go look for myself, if I can know vaguely what I’d be looking at, it gives me something new to think about.

Maeda - Oh- I can absolutely do that, yeah.

Maeda - Uh…

//Finally, he takes a seat at the table.

Maeda - I’ll just- go over everything.

Maeda - …Seeing as I can’t remember exactly what I told her, compared to what I told Hatano…

Maeda - I’m not sure if you got to see inside Tsurugi’s dorm room, but Higa was found dead in the spot where he fell asleep last night.

Maeda - He still had his blankets, his pillows, everything of the sort… he really just seemed to be sleeping-

Maeda - But… then the body discovery announcement played…

Maeda - I’m not sure if you’ve looked at his Monokuma file, but there’s about as much information on him as there was for Iranami. 

Maeda - Including- there’s no cause of death. Tomori and I agree that it looks like suffocation, though.

Maeda - I thought that a pillow was put over his face, and he got smothered- mostly because we found a pillow nearby that had blood stains on it, so I figured that could be from Higa attacking the blackened, and managing to scratch them.

Maeda - But, Tomori says that’s unlikely, because the bloodstains on the pillow don’t seem to be in the right spots for that-

Maeda - It’s like… it dripped onto the center of the pillow, as opposed to by the edges, where the blackened would’ve been holding it… 

Maeda - So, even if it was used in the murder- which, Tomori doesn’t seem to think so- it’s unlikely that the blackened got attacked by Higa.

Maeda - At least, he doesn’t seem to have gotten blood out of them… and Tomori pointed out that a lot of people here already have bruising on their arms.

Maeda - What else…

Maeda - I can’t imagine that Higa didn’t react to getting attacked… but then again, I’d imagine he’d scream… and I think we’d have heard if that happened.

Maeda - Oh! There was marks on Higa’s body, too.

Maeda - No blood on him- from injuries, or attacking someone else…

Maeda - But- he was lying down on his back, and his hands were kinda- up by his face, like this…

//Maeda does his best to imitate the way Higa’s hands were splayed out.

Maeda - And, like… there was a patch on his throat that seemed… sort of rug-burned? Not that I think that’s what caused the mark, but it had that sort of pattern to it, y’know?

Maeda - Which, I think that works with the idea of him being strangled…

Maeda - But, what really keeps throwing me is this last bit-

Maeda - Along the back of his neck, and the backs of his hands and wrists, it was all discolored…

Maeda - Like- it was this… dark pink sort of color? And I don’t know what could’ve caused it…

Maeda - …

Maeda - I think that’s all I found- I can’t think of anything else… I went through the whole room, checked everyone’s belongings, and I didn’t find anything weird.

Maki - …You said the discoloration was along the back of his body?

Maeda - Mhm…

Maki - …

Maki - Like- the parts closest to the ground?

Maeda - I… guess?

Maki - …

Maki - Uh- could it have been the blood naturally pooling?

Maeda - …?

Maki - When you die, your heart stops pumping blood- without any force keeping the blood circulating through your veins, it naturally starts to pool.

Maki - If you were suspended, it would all drain towards your feet, because that’s… what gravity does. Since Higa was laying on his back, it would move towards his back- that’s what you see with most dead bodies.

Maeda - …

Maki - …

Maeda - That, uh…

Maeda - …Yeah, sounds like that might be it-

//Maki smiles, and Maeda rolls his eyes.

Maeda - You know- I tried to compare his body to Kurokawas! Since it took us a few hours to find her…

Maeda - But… honestly, I didn’t really remember what she looked like.

Maki - …I mean, I guess that’s a good thing.

Maki - Bad for your safety that you aren’t learning more about dead bodies- and don’t let Tsurugi know you aren’t that independent yet…

Maki - …But, it’s good if that isn’t how you remember people.

Maeda - Yeah…

Maeda - …Mekaru is still… so vivid to me.

Maeda - Well- her death, I mean…

Maki - Didn’t you… actually witness her death?

Maeda - …Mhm. Me, Kobashikawa, and Ōtori.

Maki - Ah… makes sense, then.

Maeda - …

Maki - …

Maki - Do you remember, like…

Maki - What everyone sounded like?

Maeda - …?

Maki - …

Maki - I don’t know. It’s just… I try to remember Kurokawa, or Inori, and while I can remember their faces…

Maki - I mean- even then, some of my clearest memories are Kurokawa’s photo in the file, or Inori’s expression when that collar closed around her…

Maki - …

Maki - And… I don’t think I remember their voices too distinctly.

Maeda - …

Maeda - Kurokawa was always talking about her streams… I guess that’s the nice thing about this era of the world, all the digital back-ups of things.

Maki - Mhm… the good think about being a SHSL, really. Lots of records-

Maki - Which, it’s typically a bad thing, for most people… but, even out of SHSL’s, we’re different from most right now.

Maeda - …

Maeda - I think Inori is the only one where it might be hard to find videos of her working.

Maki - Ah…

Maki - …Can’t tell if it feels comforting, to imagine seeing everyone again… or if I’ll just remember how they looked the last time I saw them.

Maeda - …

Maeda - Maybe it’d be a good idea, then, if you never saw Higa for yourself.

Maki - …Nah.

Maki - I’m uh… 

//She trails off- Maeda understands why she disagreed with his comment, though. She doesn’t have an issue with remembering him like that.

Maki - …But, anyways, I really do think it’d be good for me to look at Higa’s body.

Maki - Because- well, this is kinda the thing, y’know?

Maki - You didn’t understand what you were looking at when you were investigating, and just by your description, I think I know what’s going on.

Maki - Of course, I’d need to see for myself to be certain- for all I know, you could be, like… really bad at describing things-

Maeda - Okay. Okay. Sure, just say that.

Maki - But, either way, I know things you don’t, and can contribute a new understanding.

Maeda - Yeah…

Maeda - It all makes sense- I promise, I’ll come sub in for you once I’m done asking around in Tsurugi’s dorm.

Maki - Really, Maeda, I’m not worried-

Maki - Just… tap me out when you can.

Maki - …Hey, Maeda?

Maeda - Hm?

Maki - …Bet I could come up with a time of death, if I got to see Higa.

Maeda - Really?!

Maki - Mhm- I mean, I’m sure Tsurugi can do the same, but better to have two guesses than one, right?

Maki - I may not be able to get things down to the hour- but I bet I could tell you if he died before, or after Iranami.

Maeda - No- that’d be great!

Maeda - I’m not sure how, but I bet the times of death will end up being important… maybe that’s how Monokuma will determine things, like only the first death counts?

Maki - We'll find out in the trial, it seems-

Maki - But, either way, there's nothing wrong with having some more information.

Maeda - Yeah...

Maeda - Maki, does it seem to you like there's just...

Maeda - ...Like... you just have no clue what's going on here?

Maeda - It's so bad, it's like I don't even know what I don't know... I don't know what evidence I could be missing-

Maeda - There has to be something we haven't found regarding Iranami's cause of death, but I don't know where to look,

Maeda - And for Higa, it's not like strangulation really takes a weapon, so there's nothing I should be looking for there...

Maki - ...No, I get that.

Maki - I think a lot of this is going to come down to testimonies- we were all asleep in the same room, and at least two people left, and someone *fucking died*- there's no way that no one heard anything.

Maki - ...Plus, while I hate to say it- we do have a wild card.

Maki - I mean, what is Taira doing?

Maeda - I keep thinking she could be looking at something in the Rec room... like, maybe it was a slow acting poison that got Iranami, and the coffee was just some red herring, for some reason...

Maeda - But, I know that that's on Hatano's mind too- that's why she isn't going to talk with Tsurugi and Uehara herself, it's because she wants to try and find Taira.

Maki - Really?

Maki - I mean, not like I can think of anything else she could be doing-

Maki - Other than tapping out guards...

Maki - Well- hopefully it turns up something-

Maki - ...

Maeda - ...

Maki - …

Maeda - She looks…. odd. I wonder what she’s thinking about.

Maeda - Maki?

Maki - ...Maeda.

Maki - How, uh...

Maki - How fucked would it be if, say...

Maki - Taira was the blackened, and this whole time, she's just been off destroying incriminating evidence?

Maeda - ...

Maeda - Well. I've always been a pretty firm believe in jinxing things, and speaking stuff into existence...

Maeda - So- hopefully now that we've thrown it out there as a concept, we'll get proven wrong, and Taira will show up ready to accurately accuse the blackened.

Maki - ...

Maki - Maeda. I think now's a good time for us to stop talking, and start focusing on getting as much evidence as we can.

Maeda - Yeah, sounds good!

Maki - We didn't have that last conversation.

Maeda - Nope. We did not.

Maki - ...Bye.

Maeda - Yeah, bye- be back for you soon.

~*~

Maeda, narrating - ...

Maeda - Surely, she isn't...

Maeda - ...Well.

Maeda - ...Hey! A potential time of death! That's great news!

Maeda - ...Oh my god, what is Taira doing...

Maeda looks around, and is surprised to see {Hatano} is yet to {leave the dining hall.} He’d expect her to ask {Maki} or {Ōtori} about what happened last night, but… she may not want to walk over to that part of the room, due to who’s table they’re sitting by.